How do I use DiscWizard to backup my Seagate hard drive?

The current version of DiscWizard is supported in Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Previous versions of Microsoft Windows, such as Windows 98SE and Windows Me, are not supported.

With the latest release of DiscWizard, you can now back up any partition on your computer to another hard drive, removable media such as CD-R/RWs or DVD-R/RWs, or even a drive on your network or an FTP server.

DiscWizard backs up your hard drive by copying everything onto a compressed file or set of files known as a disk image backup. Once a disk image backup is created, you can use DiscWizard to restore the full partition, or individual files or folders from within the backup image.

1. Open DiscWizard for Windows.

2. In the "Pick a Category " menu, click Image Backup and Image Restore.

   
   
   Click Image Backup.

3. In the "Welcome to the Create Image Backup Wizard!" screen, click Next.

   

4. In the "Select Image Backup Type" screen, leave the default option of My Computer selected. This option allows you to create an image of an entire hard drive, or individual partition on that drive.

   

   The other options are greyed out, and are only available in the commercial version of Acronis True Image Home Edition. Click Next.

5. In the Data to Backup Up section screen select Discs and Partitions and click Next.
   
   
   
   The System state option is only available in the full version of Acronis True Image Home Edition.
   
   
6. In the "Partitions Selection" window, click on the drive(s) or partition(s) that you want to create a backup image of.

   

   In the example above, Disc 1 is selected, which includes the C: partition on that drive. Click on Next.

   When using DiscWizard, you may see an "Information" window with information on acquiring the full version of Acronis True Image

   

   To close this message, click on OK. To permanently disable this message, click on the check box next to Do not show this message again and click on OK.

7. In the "Image Backup Location" screen, you can use the window on the left to navigate to the location where you want the backup image file to be saved. In the "Folder:" text box, you can type in the name of the backup image file that you will be backing up to.

   

   In the example above, the backup image file "MyImage.tib" will be saved to drive F:.

   The "farther" you store the archive from the original folders, the safer it will be in the event of data corruption. For example, saving an archive from your C: drive to an external drive will more likely protect your data in the event that your computer crashes, than if you saved it to another internal hard drive.

8. In the "Select Image Backup Mode" screen, leave the default Create a new image backup archive option selected. This will create a new image backup file.

   

   The other options are greyed out, and are only available in the commercial version of Acronis True Image Home Edition. Click on Next.

9. In the "Choose Image Backup Options" screen, you may select to Use default options when creating the backup, which will use DiscWizard's default settings, or Set the options manually, to adjust settings as to how the image backup will be run.

   

   The default options when DiscWizard is first installed are normal compression level, low image backup priority, automatic archive splitting, and no additional settings.

   Once you have made your selection, click on Next. If you chose Use default options, please skip the next step and proceed to step 10.

10. If you selected Set the options manually in the previous step, you will now see the "Image Backup creation options" screen.

    

    From here, you can adjust the following settings:

    • Compression level - This allows you to compress the image file to a smaller total capacity than the partition(s) that is being backed up. Be aware that the higher the level of compression you select, the longer the backup process will take.
    • Image Backup priority - Adjust this setting to change how fast the backup will run, and how much it will interfere with other applications you have open
    • Archive splitting - If you are backing up to a file system that only supports smaller file sizes, or to removable media such as CDs and DVD, you can use this setting to split the image into multiple files of a size you specify.
    • Additional settings - You can use this option to validate that the backup image was created properly

    Once you have selected the backup options, click on Next.

11. In the "Archive Comments" window, you can add a description for the backup.

    

    This is recommended if you create multiple backup images in the same location. The image creation date will be automatically included in the backup image's description, so you do not need to include it here. It is not necessary to add any comments if you do not want to.

    Once you are finished, click on Next.

12. The next window shows the settings you have selected for your backup.

    

    Once you have verified your selections are correct, click on Proceed.

13. The "Operation Progress" window will open, displaying the image backup process as it progresses.

    

    After a minute, the estimated time remaining will be calculated and displayed above the "Total progress" bar.

14. Once the backup has completed, an "Information" window will open stating that the operation has completed successfully.

    

    Click on OK. You may now close out of DiscWizard.

15. If you want to verify that the file has been created, you can browse to it in My Computer.

    

For further information on using DiscWizard's image backup feature, please consult the Discwizard User's Guide.